Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming education. Are you ready for it?
Since the release of ChatGPT last year, the use of AI in education has been hotly debated. Can AI help teach language and writing skills? Or does the possibility of cheating, misinformation, and inappropriate content outweigh the benefits? How might your child use education in their schooling?
AI and Education
Last year, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) programme that answers questions in a human-like manner, generating answers based on large amounts of data the programme has read. This was a huge step forward for AI. Since ChatGPT’s arrival, other AI programmes like Google’s Gemini (formerly Bard) have been introduced. Organisations, businesses, and governments have debated the uses and dangers of AI, including in education. Can AI help students learn? Or does it cause more harm than good? And how does it challenge our ideas of what makes a good education?
AI in Schools
AI is already changing how we think about schooling. The Department of Education and House of Lords have launched investigations into how to use technology like AI in schools. Some ideas include having AI tools act as teaching assistants or virtual tutors, giving students individualised skills practice in addition to their teacher-taught lessons. AI can also help teachers and parents by helping them write educational plans, activities, and communications. But there are also concerns about the downsides of AI use in schools, like the possibility of cheating or misinformation.
BBC Young Reporters have found that many of their classmates are already using AI for help with their schoolwork. Many use it to help plan or structure assignments or for help with articulating an answer. Others use it to cheat – but have found that it doesn’t always provide accurate answers. Still, these students largely believe AI should be taught in schools.
The Benefits of AI
AI might be here to stay, so how can AI help you in school? AI programmes like ChatGPT can be useful for searching for information. Whether you are doing a research project or need some helpful tips for a homework assignment, asking an AI programme for information can lead to more comprehensive answers than Google. AI can help you find specific sources, like news sources about climate change or books about the Roman empire. It can also help answer questions or clarify lessons learned in school – but make sure to check any information it gives against reliable sources.
AI programmes can also be useful for teaching information or helping students practise skills. Students learning new languages can chat with AI to practise their language skills. AI programmes can model different types of writing, like a persuasive letter, to help students learn specific writing skills. Some programmes, like the NSWEduChat created by teachers in Australia, prompt students to find their own answers instead of resorting to technology. These uses of AI allow students to have extra support outside of the classroom, giving advice or demonstrating how to complete tasks instead of simply providing answers.
The Dangers of AI
AI has many uses in school, but it can also cause problems for students and teachers. One major concern is that it will help students cheat. It may seem easy and harmless to ask AI to write papers or answer questions for you, but it can have big consequences. Passing off someone else’s work – including AI’s – as your own is plagiarism, which can result in failing assignments or getting in trouble with your school. Even if you don’t get caught, you lose the opportunity to learn, which will hurt later during exams and other assignments.
Using AI can cause even more problems than cheating off another student. AI can ‘hallucinate’, or make up information. If you ask AI for information or to answer a question, it may simply make up facts and act as if they are real. AI users can also create deep fakes, articles and images that are fictional but seem real. These can make it difficult to tell the difference between truth and fiction, and can cause lots of harm when they involve real people or events.
Indeed, many parents and teachers worry about AI exposing children to harmful or inappropriate content, especially with so few regulations on recent AI programmes like ChatGPT. AI has also prompted concerns about privacy, as there are few rules about how AI programmes use the information users put into them or information available elsewhere online.
The Future of AI and Students
Learning the uses and dangers of AI is important because it will be a part of students’ lives for many years to come. Once students leave school, they can expect to tackle the same questions about the uses and misuses of AI at universities and in careers. At universities, students and lecturers are debating how AI can help with writing essays or conducting research and what uses of AI count as plagiarism. In careers, workers use AI to draft emails, plans, and proposals, while employers use AI programmes to read through resumes and hire new employees.
This means there are important AI skills students can learn now that will help them throughout their lives. Students can practise writing clear directions to AI to receive the advice or writing samples that will be the most useful. They can work on their own writing style and editing skills to learn the best ways to adapt sample texts or information created by AI. And they can practise research – thinking critically and finding reliable sources – so they can check information provided by AI. Finally, they should pay attention to their school’s and teachers’ directions about the use of AI to make sure they are always following the rules.
AI has made a lot of changes to how we learn and think about education. It opens up a lot of possibilities for virtual tutors, language learning programmes, and writing help. But it also can cause problems, like the spread of misinformation through AI hallucinations and deep fakes, and an increase in cheating and plagiarism. This is why it’s important to teach children how to use AI productively, as support for learning and not a replacement. Teaching critical thinking, research, and writing skills is also crucial. AI will play a role in students’ lives going forward, so it’s important to give them the skills they need to succeed.
